News from the 2020 U.S. Open tennis tournament has it that world’s number one tennis player and champion, Novak Djokovic, has been disqualified from the competition. He left immediately he learnt from the officials that it’s all over for him in the 2020 tournament. Why was he disqualified?

Djokovic hit a line judge in the throat with the tennis ball. And the rules say you stand disqualified if you hit the ball “dangerously or recklessly within the court, or with negligent disregard of the consequences”.

There are a number of lessons to be learnt from this incident. Lesson number one: The rules are clear and they must equally apply to the world’s number one male player. There are no sacred cows around the corridors of rules. Often, it is only in Nigeria that the high and mighty with impish impunity go against the rules and people who are supposed to make them pay for that keep pussyfooting about such. So terrible!

Lesson number two: Djokovic hit his tennis ball accidentally. It was a mistake and he did apologise.  This is where grace is different from the law. God is equally very strict about rules but if you sincerely acknowledge a mistake and sincerely ask for forgiveness, God will forgive you. He does not disqualify with this speed with which the world’s number one tennis player has been disqualified.

Lesson number three: Yes, the act was not intentional.  But it was obvious Djokovic was not looking at where he was aiming the loose ball. It all points to ‘poor judgment’.  Sports like tennis with its strict rules must have a number one in it who must show example in all things. The champion is a leader. A celebrity is a leader. A leader is like a city that is set on a hill and cannot be hid (Matthew.5:14).

Being a champion is more than a matter of wearing a crown, it is more about wearing a character. More than medals, he must think of morals.

Left with me, for having said “I am sorry”, the disqualification should have been reviewed.

I wish Djokovic the best of his career. We live out these lessons.